Title

Walking in Circles?

Problem Scenario

I was wondering how people would react when their senses are taken away. We think of hearing and sight as an everyday part of our lives, so I was interested if people will be able to adapt in certain situations without the use of our senses.


Broad Question
What affects a persons ability to walk in a straight line?

Specific Question

Does sound and sight affect your ability to walk in a straight line over a set distance?

Hypothesis

I hypothesize that people without sight and hearing will have the most amount of deviation. People who were just blind would do slightly better. People who have all their senses or who are deaf would have little to no deviation.

Graph of Hypothesis

Variables

Independent Variable:

Ability to See / Ability to Hear

Dependent Variable:

Amount of Deviation

Variables That Need To Be Controlled:
Distance Walked

Vocabulary List That Needs Explanation

Deviation: Variation from a set point

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General Plan

In this experiment I will be testing a person's ability to walk in a straight line. First I will set up my experiment in a open area making sure there are no obstacles that someone can run into. Then I will mark a certain point were people will begin walking. Next I will have people walk a set distance four different times. Once with sight and sound ( control ), one without sight, one without sound, and one without sight or sound. After each time they walk I will record the data in my notebook. Once I have all my data I will determine if sight/sound affects your ability to walk.

Potential Problems And Solutions

Problem: People will always walk in a straight line
Solution: I will test multiple people to make sure the results are different for each test subject

Safety Or Environmental Concerns

1. Someone could run into a object while blindfolded
Solution: Only test in big open areas

Experimental Design

What is your experimental unit?
1 person

Number Of Trials:

10

Number Of Subjects In Each trial:

I will have 4 subjects (per trial)

Number of Observations:

I will have 4 obsevations per person

When data will be collected

Between February 4th and March 1st

Where will data be collected?

In my notebook

Resources and Budget Table

Item	Number needed	Where I will get this	Cost
Notebook	1	School	$ 0.00
Pencil / Pens	1	School	$ 0.00
Blindfolds	1	School	$ 0.00
Tape measure	1	School	$ 0.00
Poster Board	1	School	$ 5.00
Yard Stick	1	School	$0.00
Headphones	1	School	$0.00
Music Player	1	School	$0.00

Detailed Procedure

1. Set up testing area (mark starting/stop point / clear area of all obstacles )
2. Take a volunteer and put them at the starting point.
3. Then make him/her walk 10 meters.
4. Then make them repeat step 2/3 with slight variations, once without sight, once without hearing, once without both sight/hearing (Record data and observations after each part)
5. Next do steps 1-3 nine more times ( each on a different test subject / person )
6. Once you have completed 10 full trials, review your data and make a conclusion.

Diagram

Photo List

Time Line

2/1- Procedure, Timeline, Problem List Complete
2/4- Begin Experiments
3/1- Experiments Done
3/7- Analysis
3/15- Discussion/Background
3/22- Posters Complete
3/29- KMS Fair

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Data Table

Trial	Control	Blind	Deaf	Blind/Deaf
Average

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Data Analysis

All Raw Data

Trial	Control	Blind	Deaf	Blind/Deaf
1	0	243.84	0	55.88
2	0	127	0	25.4
3	0	198.12	0	175.26
4	0	154.94	0	124.46
5	0	228.6	0	30.48
6	0	165.1	0	86.36
7	0	165.1	0	152.4
8	0	200.66	0	165.1
9	0	254	0	68.58
10	0	304.8	0	66.04
	Control	Blind	Deaf	Blind/Deaf
	0	204.216	0	94.996

Graphs

Average Walking Data Graph

Photos

SubjectSetup

SubjectWalkingBlind/Deaf

10MeterMeasurment

Results

During this experiment I measured a persons ability to walk in a straight line when their ability to see and hear was varied. For each trial one person did four different variations of the same test. One variation was the control. The control was one of the test the subjects did, this was when the walked as the did everyday with all their senses. I then did three other tests on the same person, once without sight, once without hearing, and once without both hearing and sight. I then recorded the data for each test the subjects did. After I used this data to find the average amount of deviation. The results show that people who couldn't see but could hear had the most deviation when walking, those who could not see or hear did much better, and those who could see and hear and those who could not hear had the ability to walk in a perfect straight line.

Conclusion

I hypothesized that people without sight and hearing would have the most amount of deviation, people who were just blind would do slightly better. People who had all their senses or were deaf would have little to no deviation. I must reject my hypothesis. I reject it because people without sight but had hearing had more deviation then those who were both blind and deaf. And those with all their senses and those without hearing walked a perfect line. So overall I must conclude that my hypothesis was incorrect.

Discussion

I am very proud to say that I was able to answer my question. I originally thought that people without sight and hearing will have the most amount of deviation. People who were just blind would do slightly better and people who have all their senses or who are deaf would have little to no deviation. I later found that my hypothesis was incorrect. When I realized I was wrong I only found my experiment that much more interesting. When I began testing my experiment some things didn't go exactly how planned. It was harder then I thought It would be to figure out how to properly use my time in the most effective way in order to complete everything that needed to get done. Though once I figured out exactly what I needed to accomplish it was easier to handle. The pattern that my data showed was that people who were blind but could hear always had the most amount of deviation. That surprised me, I thought people without both hearing and sight would do worse. If I were to continue my test I would love to see what would happen and if my results would stay the same and what other patterns would happen.

Benefit to Community and/or Science

My experiment may benefit the community because it sheds light on just how important our senses are and how they are a huge part of our daily lives. It also helps us understand how we sense the environment around us and why we react the way we do in certain situations.

Abstract

During this experiment I was observing how people walk when their senses are modified. I specifically used both sight and hearing to test with. While testing I used 10 people as my test subjects, I then took each one of them and tested them in four different scenarios. Once with all your senses, once without sight, once without hearing, and once without both hearing and sight. With each of the four tests I had them walk a distance of 10 meters and would record the deviation after each walk. While some did better than others, all the results were very close and grouped together based on the specific test. What happened was those who had no hearing or had both hearing and sight did perfectly, no deviation at all. Those who were blind but could hear did the worst, and those who were both blind and deaf did right in the middle. My experiment shows that hearing makes it harder to walk when blind, which it the opposite of what you would expect.